


Forgotten Promises

by lapinprince



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Ending, Birthday Fluff, Implied Relationships, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 02:19:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11072016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lapinprince/pseuds/lapinprince
Summary: Goro's always spent his birthdays bitter and alone, but Akira and the others were determined to change that.





	Forgotten Promises

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday to the love of my life. i just had to write something for him, totally putting off my other fic but its alright
> 
> this has endgame spoilers, an alternate ending if goro swallowed his pride and sided with the thieves to fight shido. choosing the timing was awkward because post canon would be the only time the thieves woulda known goro on his birthday pffpfptp
> 
> hope you enjoy! come scream about akechi goro with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/princenocolo) and let me know how you think! hope you enjoy :>
> 
> -♔

To be quite honest, Akechi Goro hated his birthday. 

Growing up, he was always alone on the day. Without much of a family spend time with, that only left his friends that were surface level, friendships that didn’t leave the classroom. Of course, he gave up trying to make them care about who he was long ago. It was useless to appeal to them, much easier to appease. Which worked, but it wasn’t _him_. It felt like nothing.

After climbing his way to fame, the spotlight shining harshly on his face, the knowledge of his birthday resulted in his fans sending horrifying amounts of letters and chocolates and desserts and flowers and other gifts to the TV studios and his personal mailbox. The contrast between now and his childhood was jarring, but he didn’t feel any less empty. No, these fans only loved him for the articulate, polite and admirably passionate Detective Prince persona that he kept up at all times in the limelight. Not his ugly, vengeful inside. And though he believed that justice itself was not black and white, his perception of who he was was stubbornly, completely monochrome.

It couldn’t be any other way with the pit of jealousy that grew and unraveled as he sat in the attic of Leblanc with the other Phantom Thieves, celebrating Ann’s birthday. The blonde was teary eyed, a simple strawberry shortcake with lit candles sitting in front of her on the table. The glow of the candles flushed warmth across her smiling face, all of the Thieves- _her friends_ \- watching her expectantly. 

“Thank you for organizing this, Akira…” she hiccuped, voice thick with emotion. He responded with a slight smile and a dismissive shrug, it was no trouble getting the Thieves together with a cake after all. Even if all of them were slightly wary of Goro’s presence, unsure if he had ulterior motives for coming. He had no ulterior motives, only the pleasant mask on his face that hid the envy eating away at his insides as he watched the rest of the Thieves leaning forward while Ann blew out the candles.

“Hey… Goro-kun, when is your birthday, anyway?” Ann asked, glancing up to him, smoke billowing from the extinguished candles. The question took him aback, and he blinked owlishly at her as he wondered if he should tell the truth or brush it off. 

“June 2nd,” he replied cooly, remembering that his birthday was fairly public information anyway. 

“We should throw a party for you too! Oh, well- we have a few birthdays in between now and then, but we should hold parties for each of us!” Ann grinned, and the others also smiled, seemingly liking the idea. Yusuke made a modest comment about wanting a ridiculously flavoured cake, Haru argued that such a cake would taste horrible, and the conversation derailed from there. Goro didn’t think it would matter in the end, anyway. There was no doubt that they would forget about his birthday, especially with the plans he had in store for the group.

Since he had long given up on his birthday, the conversation was just a distant memory along with every other vaguely painful and distant moment with the Thieves. He had decided that the Thieves would most certainly be gone by his next birthday if all went well, but things took quite the unexpected turn instead. He supposed that now, months after the events of Shido’s palace, he was the closest he had ever been to having real friends. Faced with the same enemy, despite all of his disgusting, shameful actions, the Phantom Thieves threw out a hand and after much heartache, he threw away his pride to join them. He should have felt relieved that he was wanted, but it really just pushed him further into his shell, unsure why he was given a second chance. 

After the Phantom Thieves unofficially disbanded, the group of friends predictably drifted away. The third years all went to university and the second years were now third years studying busily for their own entrance exams. Goro continued on with his now much quieter life, only really having much contact with Akira, who was diligent at keeping in touch. They met up fairly often, and Goro felt so relaxed around the other- when he wished that they had met years earlier on the boat, _this_ was what he had hoped for. Someone intelligent and comforting with whom he could be himself. In fear of ruining what he did have, any other feelings he may have felt were panicked over and promptly squashed. But of course, his feelings for the former leader persisted, and it seemed that they were even reciprocated. They had an unspoken relationship of the sorts, one of comfort: touching knees, leaning heads on shoulders and hands brushing against each other. Despite his self doubt, it was the most genuine relationship he’d ever had.

Since barely any parties were held for the other former Phantom Thieves due to the group’s busy schedules, the thought of birthdays and parties completely faded out of the picture. It never came up again, not until one morning when he woke up to a text notification from Akira. Rubbing his eyes, he opened the message to read it.

> Hey. Are you busy today?

It was almost the weekend, so he wasn’t.

> > No. Why?

> Let’s hang out, I haven’t seen you in a while. Meet me at Shibuya station at 6?

It really had only been a few days since he last saw Akira, but his cheeks felt warm at the thought of seeing him again. He texted a confirmation and got dressed for the day.

* * *

“Evening, Goro-kun.” Akira waved, leaning against the wall as Goro approached. “Let’s go, this way.” He swiftly turned and guided Goro back towards the train station, which was confusing to the boy considering how he expected that they would go somewhere in Shibuya.

“Wait, where are we going?” he asked, furrowing his brow. A slight smile ghosted Akira’s face before his cool monotone exterior took over once again.

“You’ll see.”

They eventually ended up getting off at Yongen-Jaya, perplexing Goro even further. He hadn’t been in this area for a long time, and with the route Akira was taking, he recognized that they were going towards Leblanc.

“We’re going to Leblanc?” he asked, but he was given no response as Akira kept walking at a brisk pace. Once they arrived at the door to the cafe, Akira gestured towards the doorknob.

“Open it,” he said, and hesitantly, Goro did.

“Surprise!” rang a chorus of familiar voices from inside. All of the former Thieves were there, piled into the booths, grinning from ear to ear. Goro felt his voice catch in his throat as he remembered what day it was.

“Happy birthday, Goro,” Akira said, smiling and nudging him forward to the others.

“We didn’t know exactly what kind of cake you liked so we just made a lot of fuwa fuwa pancakes,” Ryuji said proudly as he stumbled forward with a huge plate of the souffle pancakes messily drizzled with syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries.

Goro was speechless. They had remembered? _He_ didn’t even remember, so if after all this time, the Thieves had remembered…

Wet tears spilled onto his cheeks as he stood there shocked. Ann, Akira, and Morgana immediately leaped over to him to comfort, the latter nuzzling himself against his leg. He couldn’t even push them away, not this time.

“Hey, it’s alright. C’mon, sit down,” Ryuji said, the grin not leaving his face. Goro did so, everything still sinking in. 

“You remembered?” he choked out, peering at all of their faces.

“Of course! We made sure to throw one for you too, especially since well… after what you said on the boat. It seemed like you really deserved one,” Ann chirped, smiling so kindly that Goro was unsure how to take it. She gently guided him to sit at the counter where a line of plates with even more fuwa fuwa pancakes rested, all with different decorations and toppings. There were nearly as many plates as Thieves present, and it dawned on him that they had each tried to make and decorate a souffle pancake, each as personalized as a card. Some were more artistic than others, some were a bit questionable in design, but clearly each of them had sat down and spent time tracing letters with sauce and drizzling syrup. For _him._

“D-deserved…?” he echoed, glancing down now at a plate of the fluffy pancakes, one with marshmallows and graham cracker crumbs dusted over the whipped cream and syrup, “Happy birthday, Goro” written in chocolate syrup on the plate.

“Yes, deserved. Like how you deserve friends, too.” He hadn’t realized that Akira was seated beside him. He mulled all this over in his head- the Thieves invited him over to their side despite knowing about all of the awful things he did, and now they were here to celebrate the birthday of the boy who singlehandedly made their lives miserable… maybe they _did_ forgive him. He swallowed his reservations, wiped away his tears and gave a bright, genuine smile back to them all. 

“...I guess I do,” he said, and a small paw rested on his hand.

“You’re one of us!” Morgana chirped, and the others flashed bright smiles at him. Futaba leaned over to stick some candles into the nearest pancake, before pausing and staring at the bundle in her hand.

“How old are you turning?” she asked, frowning at the pancake.

“Er-”

“Actually, I only have nine candles- hey, like one for each of us!” Futaba cackled and stuck the candles in a circle, Makoto sweeping after to light each one with a match. The warmth of the tiny flames felt nice on Goro’s face, his heart thumping. He glanced towards Akira, who smiled warmly back at him with an encouraging smile. 

The group began to sing, and Goro was smiling so much that his face was starting to hurt, which was definitely not something that happened often. He blew out the candles after they finished, extinguishing them all in one breath. The Thieves cheered and Haru took charge of trying to cut the “cake”, staring at the multiple plates with a determined expression. Goro felt like he was absolutely filled with bubbly air as he watched the Thieves- _his_ friends- try to split up the pancakes while arguing over the best way to do so.

The party went on, the group eating all the souffle pancakes they could before trying to feed the excess to Morgana. The tears really threatened to spill over again when each of the Thieves produced a small gift for him, too. One person went a bit overboard of course, as Goro pulled a new pair of black leather gloves from a package that prompted Akira to give a sheepish grin. 

The energy of them all wound down as Akira tugged on his old apron and poured cups of drip coffee for them to sip on. He had pulled out Goro’s favourite blend too, and the birthday boy sipped happily with his friends. Friends. He was still reeling that these were people who wanted him around, who cared about him, who he could rely on. People who who could see past the carefully constructed persona that he kept up as a barrier and a safeguard, and people who wanted him anyway. People like that _existed_ , and they were right here, stomachs full of pancake and coffee as they sandwiched themselves around Goro. It would take getting used to, but the warm feeling in his stomach didn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

He sure hoped it wouldn’t, anyway.


End file.
